DNA Replication Fidelity: Theory and Experiment

Jan Florián^1,2

¹ Department of Chemistry, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60626, USA

² Institute of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 5, CZ-12116 Prague 2, Czech Republic

Understanding the origin of the fidelity of DNA polymerases is a problem of enormous importance. Despite great experimental progress we still do not have a detailed molecular picture of the factors that control the fidelity. Here we describe the application of computer simulation approaches [1] to gain a deeper insight into fidelity mechanisms and to complement the experimental advances in the field. We focus on the calculations of structure-function (fidelity) correlation and on the improvements of the obtained results by a constant feedback from kinetic, binding, and structural experiments.

1.     J. Florián, M. F. Goodman and A. Warshel, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 102, 6819 – 6824 (2005).

Support from NIH (Program Project grant #1U19CA105010) is gratefully acknowledged.